Three cousins battle one fatal disease
By Angela Greiner Community Reporter

Marlborough - The members of "Double Trouble Plus One" are getting ready to lace up their sneakers for their final 6.2-mile walk through Marlborough. The team, which began the annual walk to raise money to fight Cystic Fibrosis (CF) 14 years ago, hopes to break the million dollar mark with this year's fund-raiser Sunday May 18 at the Marlborough Fish and Game on Elm Street.

Gail Griffin founded the team and local walk site for the annual "Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Great Stride Walk for the Cure."

"I got involved with this because in 1990 my twin boys, Bryan and Sheldon Vigeant, were born with CF," Griffin said.

According to Griffin, CF is the number-one genetic killer of children and young adults in the United States; it is caused by a defective gene that impairs digestion and leads to chronic fatal lung infections.

After the twins' birth, Griffin was told by doctors that she would lose the boys to the disease between the ages of 10 and 13.

"That was not going to happen," Griffin said.

Motivated to give the boys a future, she committed herself to raise money for research and finding a cure.

Beginning the first walk in Worcester 17 years ago where she was living at the time, Griffin said that she chose to work with the CF Foundation because 93 cents of every dollar goes directly to research. After three years, she moved the walk site to Marlborough when she moved back to the city that she grew up in.

"Plus One" was added to the team's name in 1996 when the twins were 6 years old and Griffin's sister's newborn son, Ryan Gough, was also born with CF.

"This was unheard of," Griffin said. "… We were told we should play the lottery because the chances of this happening were a billion to one."

Griffin explained that CF can only passed to a child if both parents carry the gene.

"This made me work harder," Griffin said.

With a cure in mind, the team walked. Recently, though, Griffin's focus has changed to finding stronger antibiotics that are key to providing CF patients with a longer life expectancy.

The twins, now seniors at Marlborough High School, are involved on the school football, baseball and track teams, and plan to attend college in the fall. Ryan is in sixth grade.

The boys go to the hospital at least once a year for a three-week pulmonary clean-out, which uses strong antibiotics to blast out the mucus in their lungs.

Griffin, who has already raised over $800,000, has decided that this year will be the last year that the walk will be held in Marlborough.

"The Marlborough community and businesses have been so gracious and supportive over the years," she said. "It is time to give them a break."

Griffin said she will continue the e-mail campaign and will help fund raise for other events.

The twins' brother, Craig Vigeant, and Ryan's brothers, Joey and Justin Gough, are also committed to the CF Foundation's quest to find a cure. They have participated in many of the walks and are grateful to the community for helping to save their brothers' lives.

Griffin is proud that her sons refuse to allow the disease to beat them.

"You are given a diagnosis and a prognosis, but no one is going to give you a time slot," she said. "If they cannot beat it, they are going to live 65 years in 40."